Home » Rotherham uses browser-based service to encourage teachers to report bullying

TITLE

Rotherham uses browser-based service to encourage teachers to report bullying

AUTHOR(S)

Hadfield, Will

PUB. DATE

September 2005

SOURCE

Computer Weekly;9/13/2005, p79

SOURCE TYPE

Trade Publication

DOC. TYPE

Article

ABSTRACT

This article reports that the Rotherham Local Education Authority (LEA) has deployed a hosted service to help it get a more accurate picture of how much bullying occurs in local schools. The British Government's Every Child Matters strategy requires local authorities to record all incidents of bullying in their schools. However, authorities have found that head-teachers are reluctant to report that pupils have been bullied in case it damages their school's reputation. Managers at Rotherham LEA, which is responsible for 16 primary and four secondary schools, believe they will get a more accurate picture of the level of bullying by enabling any member of the teaching staff to report incidents that worry them, without their head-teacher's knowledge. It opted for a hosted incident recording service called Sentinel from Vantage Technologies, which is accessed via a browser. Because Sentinel is web-based, it can be accessed from anywhere by anyone with a valid user name and password. At present the only other local education authority to have looked at the Sentinel recording system is Knowsley in Merseyside, England. Managers at Knowsley LEA are considering whether to enable children to report when they have been bullied.